This dominance was all down to the determination and strength of our squad; consisting of a healthy mix of County Champions & Medallists, Master’s internationals, National standard athletes, an International and various youngsters making their Senior Debuts!! Breath-taking performances from all and an amazing spectacle for the home support. Final scores were Walton 310 [1st], South Bucks 249 [2nd], South London Harriers 216 [3rd], Reading AC 212 [4th], Aldershot Farnham & District 179 [5th], and Ealing Southall & Middlesex 178 [6th].
As the above suggests, we had a lot of quality performances on the day, from the 800m with Matthew McKenna picking up his 2nd 800m PB of the season, having ran 1:57.56 for Bronze at Surrey Champs, running a tactically sound race and powering home for the win, clocking 1:57.4 whilst also being the youngest in the field in the U17 age group; to Virginia Mitchell clocking in a time of 2:31.9 which is only 0.4s off the British, European, and World Record for the W60 age group.
This was followed up with some other fantastic performances from other club members; George Pittwood setting 2 new PB’s over the 400m [51.7 taking the win], and the 200m [24.3 placing 3rd], Robert A Smith competing in 4 events, securing 3rd place finishes across them all – 400m Hurdles, 110m Hurdles, High Jump, and the 3km Steeplechase – totalling 16 points for the team. Tina Howell following up on a packed Indoor schedule which saw her medal at the combined events champs, as well as medalling at the Surrey Indoor and Outdoor champs, extended her lead at the top of the W40 UK rankings with a leap of 9.96m in the Triple Jump for 2nd place and picking up 4th in the Long Jump, 2nd in the High Jump, and 2nd in the Javelin for an 18 point haul. In the throws, we had the Surrey County Champion for the Javelin Nicola Bell picking up two 2nd place finishes in the Shot and Discus, before rounding off the day by winning this matches Javelin event with ease. A special note for our England International Sam Mace, who after completing his first Night Shift with the Met, arrived for the match to secure points in the Discus, not his typical event but a fantastic 2nd place performance nonetheless!
We had Cedelle and Jeslyn Agyei-Kyem, both of whom are previous English Schools Champions, formed 2 out of the 4 runners for the 4x100m, and alongside their sister Annalise and debutant Jessica Maxwell; they used they’re experience and, with some expert baton practice beforehand, won the event with Cedelle storming through to finish in 51.3! Both Jeslyn and Cedelle then ran for the 4x400m team, with Tina and senior team debutant Jimena Stynes rounding off the team which placed 2nd! For the men’s team; we had Francis Herwanger [making his club debut no less] running his first track race in 18 months, keeping the team in touch with the opposition with his opening leg, passing on to Jonathan Hiorns in 3rd who began his assault on the lead, passing the South Bucks athlete to hand over the baton in 2nd place onto our newest member, Nicholas Landeau. Nicholas, who represented Trinidad & Tobago at the most recent Commonwealth Games, picked up the baton and obliterated the lead South London Harriers had, running a blistering 49.1 second leg and handing the baton to Sean Salter on the anchor. Sean, not wanting to squander the lead given, went out hard and despite South London Harriers best efforts in chasing, held his own and completed the finish with the team finishing in 3:36.2. Brilliant to watch!
